RECE MUSICBY ETHAN SCHULTZ

fire- big sean

By Ethan Schultz

Big Sean's newest released single off his upcoming album Hall of Fame, Fire was leaked July 29th. The release of the single adds to the list of songs that have been released already, including Guap, Switch Up, and Beware. The song is featured in the 2013 Hot Stove Review video.

earl sweatshirt's hive review

By Ethan Schultz

On July 15th Odd Future's youngest member, Earl Sweatshirt, released his newest single Hive off his upcoming album, Doris. Vince Staples features on the track and shows huge improvement. Hive is slightly different from his other singles that will be on Doris, which is WHOA and Burgundy. Hive had a flow similar to Yonkers. Earl and Casey Veggies have verse to verse raps which later leads to Vince Staples's two minute rap finishing off the song. If your a die-hard OFWGKTA fan you will like this song since it has the same flow as a lot of the songs back in Tyler, The Creator's first album Bast*rd.Earl has also obviously improved his lyrics and flow since EARL, his mixtape in 2010. Doris is set to release on August 20th after Earl uploaded a track list via Twitter on July 12th.

J. cole's born sinner review

By Ethan Schultz

"Long live the idols, may they never be your rivals" from Let Nas Down was one of the many things that I have taken from listening to this album. J. Cole released Born Sinner June 18 although it leaked a week earlier. I also would like to say that leaks really ruin the anticipation and anxiousness for an album to come out. But Born Sinner was great even with the leak. One song that stuck out for me on this album besides Power Trip was Forbidden Fruit ft. Kendrick Lamar. The song talks about the lust that men possess for women. Cole's entire album was solely based upon women and it almost overshadowed the rest of the album. Cole's first released single from Born Sinner, Power Trip, continued the trend of songs concerning Cole's affairs with women and his lust for them. Cole also talks about his opinion that he is the best rapper right now and that nobody can compare to him. Let Nas Down explained how the rapper, Nas, was Cole's idol growing up and how he faced devastation when Nas said that one of J. Cole's single's were terrible. The first verse of Let Nas Down made you picture Cole in his youth worshiping Nas. The track,Trouble, had an instrumental and beat itself makes the song a hit for me. New York Times ft. 50 Cent was also a song with Cole talking about how his fame makes him think about his hometown and people's judgmental state of mind. I think the album is a 9.1/10 with Power Trip and Let Nas Down leading the pack. This album in my mind is a slight upgrade from The Sideline Story.

chance the rapper: up and coming!

By Ethan Schultz

Chance the Rapper released his second mixtape, Acid Rap, this year and has been getting recognition ever since. In 2011, Chance released his first official mixtape, #10Day, which helped him be featured in XXL Magazine's as a 2013 Freshman Class nominee. Chance was also highlighted as one of Complex Magazine's "10 New Chicago Rappers to Watch Out For". Being a huge Childish Gambino fan I follow every one of Gambino's collabs and new songs. When Acid Rap came out one song that caught my eye was Favorite Song by Chance The Rapper ft. Childish Gambino. I came for Gambino and stayed for Chance. Chance's voice reminded me of Gambino's voice on his album, Camp, which I can still listen to for days. After listening to every song on Acid Rap I knew it was obvious that Chance the Rapper was one of my new favorite rappers. I loved every one of the songs of the album. It has some upbeat tracks such as Good A** Intro, Juice, and NaNa. Most of his songs though concern the use of drugs, which I do not condone, and his need to make it out of the hood, which is Chicago. The song Pusha Man starts out upbeat and talks about him being a woman's "pusha man" and then cuts out for 20 seconds and then resumes with a lower sounding rhythmic beat. His famous ad-lib (AH) is used in intervals while he talks about violence, drugs, and youth killings. He talks about his fear that he might die, and that national news doesn't report about the crimes. Very deep and emotional if you understand the circumstances in crime-ridden areas. All in all Chance's album was shear greatness. Mark my words: Chance will sell a top song on Itunes one day.

short yeezus review

By Ethan Schultz

Kanye West's 10-song album, Yeezus, was highly anticipated and for me kind of disappointing. As expected he writes many of his songs in a god-like view. His chorus' though are very catchy, including Chief Keef's autotuned verse on Hold My Liquor. My first look at Yeezus was when I watched Kevin Hart perform on SNL. West performed Black Skinhead and New Slaves which were very "Watch The Throne" like. His robotic, shaky, and deep instrumentals were accompanied by a man yelling gibberish like in Mercy. West's demeanor includes his view on a life of fame, women, and his role as a god-like figure. I would give Kanye's album a 6.8/10. It's instrumentals really get me, the lyrics aren't really too meaningful besides his announcement of his new Yeezy's, the (Red October's).